We're Having a Conversation
by celtic-flicka
Summary: After Logan beats up Piz, Wallace decides that they need to have a conversation... AU from 3.20 "The Bitch is Back" and on. Rated T for cursing - you know how boys are.
1. Chapter 1

Wallace watched his roommate as he laid back on his bed, while Veronica tended to the injuries Logan had inflicted on him. Piz winced slightly each time she patted his wounds with the cold washcloth, and Wallace gritted his teeth angrily.

"He didn't really give me a reason," Piz said. "He sort of just burst into the DJ booth and started whaling on me."

Wallace paced across their dorm room, clenching and unclenching his fists. "He's got bruised ribs, his eye's all jacked up…"

"Not...not really helping," Piz interjected, embarrassed.

"Look, you didn't lose a fight, Piz," Wallace spat. "It was a drive-by, man."

"I guess he was pissed about that thing that happened at the beach?" Piz asked Veronica. ."I think he still likes you,"

It had to be more than that, Wallace thought. Logan was never going to be happy about Veronica dating someone else, but there's no way Piz did or said anything to earn a beating like this. He grew more furious as he paced faster. He wanted to punch something. Or someone.

"He…saw a video," Veronica said, barely able to look at either of them, "…of us…fooling around."

"Yeah, I'm on morphine," Piz said, puzzled. "What?" Wallace froze, not believing what he was hearing.

"There's a video, taken right here in this very room, of us, Adam-and-Eve-style, getting familiar," Veronica explained. "So, um, here's my question. Is this a thing you do that maybe you forgot to mention?"

"Veronica!" Piz exclaimed.

"Just…now is the time to come clean."

Piz looked hurt at the suggestion. "You really think I would do that?" he asked in a small voice.

"No," she said. "I-I just don't understand how it happened."

 _Neither do I_ , Wallace fumed, _but I'm gonna make someone pay._

"So there's an actual video," Piz seemed to be having a hard time processing this information through his painkiller-induced fog. "Well, where did Logan get it?"

"I was about to go have a talk with him anyway, so maybe I can get some answers," said Wallace, heading for the door.

"Wallace…" Veronica began.

"Oh, we're having a conversation," Wallace interrupted.

"I'll deal with him," Veronica said.

"Not this time, Veronica," Wallace said, his voice rising. "I've had it with that jackass. I'm done standing by while he hurts my friends. I let him off the hook too many times for your sake. You know what? I don't care anymore. It's my turn to 'deal with him' now that you two are over."

At that, Veronica looked at the floor, unable to look her best friend in the eye. _Damn it, she still loves him_ , Wallace realized. _Shit—I'm never getting rid of that guy. Well, if that's how it's going to be, there are going to be some changes around here_.

"This is the last time Logan Echolls causes pain to anyone who matters to me." Wallace stormed out the door, slamming it behind him.

As he rode the elevator up to the Presidential Suite of the Neptune Grand, Wallace wasn't even sure what he was going to do when Logan answered the door. He'd only been in one other fist fight in his life, and that was in seventh grade—and he'd gotten his ass kicked. Logan's been in a lot of fights, he thought. And he's bigger than me. I could get my ass kicked again.

The elevator doors opened and he stepped out, but he stopped and stood in the hallway for a moment. Fuck it—I don't even care if I get my ass kicked. At least I'll get in a few good hits and give him back some of what he did to Piz.

Wallace strode purposefully toward the door of the suite and knocked hard. He then realized that he still didn't know what he'd do when the door opened. Do I say something? What if he's not home? What if Dick Casablancas answers the door?

He heard footsteps and the door began to open. He heard Logan's voice: "Dick, what the hell, dude? I—" _BAM!_ Wallace threw a fist and pounded Logan squarely in the face. Logan staggered backward, momentarily stunned.

"Wallace? What the fu—" _BAM!_ Wallace punched him again, this time in the jaw.

"What? I thought you liked the element of surprise," Wallace sneered, striding toward Logan, hands outstretched. "Or is it a different story when you're on the other side?"

His face bleeding and contorted with rage, Logan lunged at Wallace, tackling him into the wall. Wallace surprised himself by easily slipping out of his grasp. While Logan had size and fighting experience on his side, Wallace realized that the years of playing point guard on his high school and college basketball teams had made him strong and more agile.

 _Maybe I'm not the one that's going to get an ass-kicking today_ , he thought, a little smugly. He threw another punch, striking Logan's cheekbone.

 _Damn—it hurts to hit someone in the face_ , Wallace thought, shaking out his hands and bouncing lightly on his toes, like a boxer. Logan came at him wildly, throwing him up against the wall and punching him in the stomach. Wallace shoved him backward, then charged, aiming low in an effort to knock the taller guy down. Logan grabbed him by the shoulders and both fighters fell back over the couch. Wallace crashed against the coffee table and then rolled to the floor.

"What the fuck is your problem?" Logan demanded, clambering to his feet and looming over Wallace. "Don't you know what your roommate did?"

"What the fuck is _my_ problem?!" Wallace asked, incredulous. "He's having trouble breathing because of his ribs. He got five stitches over his eye!"

"Only five?" Logan smirked.

"You're a lunatic," Wallace said as he stood up painfully. He wanted to punch that smirk off his face, but his whole body was starting to ache from that fall.

"She didn't know he was taping her!"

"Because he didn't!" Wallace shouted. "If I thought for a second that Piz did something like that, I would have done worse to him before you did."

Logan rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Please—who else would have done it?"

"I don't know, but it wasn't Piz. He wouldn't hurt Veronica like that."

"Are you saying I would?"

"Are you saying you wouldn't?"

"I love her!" Logan yelled, pounding the couch for emphasis. "I would do anything to keep her from getting hurt. But apparently, she doesn't want that, which is why we broke up, and why she's all over the Internet now. If we were together, I could have stopped…"

"Funny, I thought she broke up with you because you cheated on her with Madison Sinclair," Wallace said, crossing his arms angrily.

"What?" Logan glared at Wallace. "No!"

"So you didn't tap that?"

"Well, yeah, I did, but we were broken up at the time."

Wallace shook his head. "OK, now I'm confused. She said you guys broke up because you slept with Madison—which, by the way, dude? That's nasty. You took Dick Casablancas' and Sheriff Lamb's sloppy seconds?"

Logan sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I know. My only excuse is that I was drunk and feeling sorry for myself because I was alone at Christmas. You know how it is."

 _Nope_ , Wallace thought.

"But it was during the time that Veronica and I were broken up—I would have killed myself before I'd cheat on her."

Actually, that's probably true, Wallace thought. Logan had risked his own life—a few times—to help Veronica. Wallace always felt he sort of owed him for that. "So wait—if the Madison thing happened over Christmas break, then what was the breakup before Christmas about?"

"Gee, and here I thought she told you everything," Logan said. Wallace could tell he was trying to be sarcastic, but it came out sad.

"You know Veronica—she's not exactly forthcoming with the details about her inner turmoil," Wallace replied. "When she said you guys broke up over Madison, I just assumed it was an ongoing problem. I think I need a flow chart or something to keep track of this relationship."

Logan chuckled unhappily. "Are you done hitting me? Because if you are, I'm having a beer. Want one?"

"Yeah, I guess it's out of my system now," Wallace smiled. A part of him wanted to stay mad at Logan, but he was starting to feel a little sorry for him.

Logan pulled two beers out of the mini-fridge, then opened the freezer compartment and took out two ice packs. He gave one to Wallace with the beer. "Here, put this on your knuckles or they're gonna hurt like hell tomorrow."

"Thanks." Wallace did not get this guy at all. He was making it hard to keep hating him. "So are you gonna tell me what happened before Christmas?"

Logan took a long gulp from his beer bottle and slouched back onto a couch. "I just don't think she was ever able to really trust me," he said, holding the ice pack to his swelling cheekbone. "She was always just waiting for the moment that I'd hurt her."

"I don't think—" Wallace began.

"No, seriously. One night I went to the casino in Benes and didn't tell her, and she used the goddamn cell phone tracker on me," Logan said bitterly.

Wallace let out a guffaw. "Really?" The glare from Logan gave him his answer.

"Sorry, man, but it's a little funny," he said, stifling a laugh. "That's vintage Mars right there."

"I guess, but it was hard to live like that," Logan said softly. Wallace suddenly felt bad for laughing.

"And I tried to show her she could count on me," Logan continued, "but she'd never let me fucking help her. She's always putting herself in danger, but then she'd get pissed off if I tried to help or, God forbid, tell her I was worried about her."

Logan downed his last sip of beer and stood to get another. He glanced over at Wallace, who held up his bottle to show that it was still half full, so he just grabbed one for himself and sat back down.

"You know, I just couldn't stand by and watch the woman I love get herself hurt. Or worse. I mean, there's a goddamn rapist on the loose and she goes running after him by herself? What the fuck? If Parker hadn't heard that whistle…" Logan's voice broke a little. He cleared his throat to try and hide that fact, but Wallace noticed. He knew how Logan felt—he'd been horrified to find out what had almost had happened to his best friend while he and Logan were chasing after a false lead. And he'd been angry at her.

"What is _wrong_ with that girl?" Wallace said aloud, more sharply than he'd intended. "Does she not know how to use a goddamn cell phone? We weren't that far away—hell, Piz was still _at_ the party! God!"

"Did you say any of that to her?" Logan asked.

Wallace sighed. "No, when I saw her at the police station, with the big cut on her head and all doped up, I was just so glad she wasn't…" he trailed off.

"Yeah," Logan agreed.

They sat silently for a few minutes.

"So about this video…" Logan began.

"Piz didn't do it," Wallace said, with a warning tone in his voice.

"Are you sure? If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's that you might not know people as well as you think you do."

"Maybe not, but I know Piz, and he just doesn't have that in him," Wallace said. "And you might know some people better if you asked questions before you threw punches."

"…Says the guy who split my lip before I had the door all the way open."

"Hey, I saw what you did to Piz—I wasn't going to give you the chance to mess up this pretty face," Wallace replied, smiling just a little.

Logan gave a little laugh, but then turned serious. "If you're sure about him, then I'll take your word for it.'

"You're gonna apologize to him," Wallace said matter-of-factly. "And you're gonna pay his medical bills."

"I know," Logan said. "I bet Veronica's pretty pissed at me, hmm?"

"Oh yeah," Wallace said. "I'd apologize to her too, if you don't want her to fuck up your credit rating or have your car repo'd."

"Don't even joke about that, man," Logan said. "But really, someone's gotta pay for making that video, and I'm gonna find out who did it. You in?"

"Yeah, I'm in," Wallace agreed. "Where do we start?"

"I think we need to ask ourselves: 'What Would Veronica Do?'" Logan said with a grand gesture. "And I think she'd track down the source of the e-mail that's being forwarded around. So our first step is to figure out who sent it to Dick. I'll go get his laptop."

Logan stood and headed for Dick's room.

"Hold on," Wallace said, sitting up straighter. Logan turned around. "I want to catch this guy as much as you do, so I'm willing to work together. But if you hurt her, Piz, or any other friend of mine again, next time you're going to be the one who goes to the emergency room. I don't care that Veronica still loves you—I will hurt you."

A smile slowly crept across Logan's face. "She still loves me?"

Wallace sighed. _Shit_. "Go get the damn laptop," he said, waving Logan out of the room.

 _I really am never getting rid of this guy_ , he thought as he finished off his beer. _Time to start that flow chart_.


	2. Chapter 2

"Holy shit! Oh man, I'm scarred for life!"

Wallace held a hand in front of his face, shading his eyes from the horror of the desktop photo on Dick's laptop.

"What, you've never seen a donkey show before?" Logan asked, clicking to open Dick's e-mail account.

"God, no! You have?"

"Yeah, once on a trip to Tijuana a couple years ago with Dick and Casey and some of the guys."

"Why would anyone want to watch that? Why?" Wallace asked incredulously.

"Actually, I had about a half a quart of tequila in me, so my vision was kind of fuzzy, but…" Logan paused.

"But what?"

"Yeah, it's disgusting," Logan conceded. "It seemed like it would be funny when someone suggested it, but I think we were all pretty grossed out."

"Except Dick."

"Apparently he was a fan, yes. OK, here's his e-mail."

"What about his password?" Wallace wondered aloud.

"He never logs out—he and I are the only one who ever use this computer anyway, and he trusts me," Logan said guiltily.

It didn't take long to find the e-mail with the video of Veronica and Piz, saved in the folder labeled "PORN!1!" The message was sent by Pi Sig president Chip Diller—to Dick and about 30 other frat brothers.

"OK, so we go talk to Chip," Wallace gritted as he stood up.

Logan shook his head. "You can't ask Chip about this. He knows you're friends with Veronica—and Piz. He's not going to tell you anything that will get one of his friends in trouble. I might have an idea, but we can't do much tonight anyway." He gestured to the darkening sky out the window. "It's getting late, and there's no way Chip's going to be home now."

"True," Wallace sighed, his arms dropping limply to his sides. He had gotten psyched up for a confrontation with Chip, but he knew Logan had a point.

"Personally, I could use some food. You hungry?" Logan asked, tossing him the room service menu.

"Yeah!" Wallace answered enthusiastically, glancing down the list of gourmet meals available. He was always hungry, and the earlier fight had given him an appetite. OK, this is weird. An hour ago, I was punching him in the face, and now he's offering me a buffalo burger. "Are you sure this is cool?"

"Well, as it turns out, I may have deserved this," Logan said, gesturing to his swollen, cut lip. "Besides, I've had worse." He shrugged.

I wonder if he's talking about bar fights, or…. Neptune High's gossip mills were frequently swirling with rumors that Aaron Echolls was not the model father he played in the magazine cover stories: Logan frequently showed up with bruises and broken bones attributed to fights that no one had seen, but a threatening look from Duncan Kane or Dick Casablancas usually squelched any conversations about the source of Logan's injuries. Veronica probably knew the real story by now, but she didn't talk much about Logan and Wallace didn't ask.

"OK, then I'll have the buffalo burger with everything on it," Wallace decided.

"An excellent choice," Logan said as he picked up the phone to place the order. Wallace picked up the ice packs they'd been using to soothe their injuries and put them back in the small freezer by the mini-bar.

He sat down on one of the couches and looked around the enormous hotel suite, with its flat-screen TV, balcony, and two huge bedrooms with their own bathrooms. This place is as big as my house, without the kitchen. When Logan got off the phone, he climbed over the back of the other couch and flopped down on the cushions to wait for the food to arrive.

"Why do you still live in a hotel?" Wallace asked. "For what you're paying to live here, you could get a really nice house, or a condo or something. I mean, I know you can afford it, but still…"

"I don't know, it's just easy, I guess," Logan explained. "We thought about moving, but Dick's pretty attached to all the amenities. The thought of him trying to fend for himself is pretty scary."

"You wouldn't want to just get your own place?" Wallace asked.

"Nah, not right now," Logan replied, pulling a throw pillow into his lap and looking intently at a tassel as he fidgeted with it. "Dick and I, you know, we're sort of the only family we've got. Neither of us really has anyone left."

Wallace didn't know what to say to that.

"Do you want to hear something really sad? Dick is the only person I give a damn about who's never left me. Even when I told him to fuck off and that I never wanted to see him again, he still came back."

"When was that?" Wallace asked.

"When he first found out about me and Veronica, let's just say he wasn't happy about it. I told him that anyone who didn't like my girlfriend was dead to me, and kicked him out of my house. He didn't talk to me for a few days, but then he came up to me one morning in the quad, asked me what kind of pizza I wanted for lunch, and that was it. And that summer when my dad was arrested and I was charged with killing Felix, all lot of my so-called friends bailed on me, but Dick and Cassidy still came by almost every day to make sure I was OK. So with Cassidy…gone…and his dad going to jail, I've gotta stick around and make sure Dick's OK."

Wallace nodded in understanding. They sat quietly for a moment, until Logan suddenly jumped up for another beer. "The food's going to be here in a few minutes. Do you need another one?"

"Yeah, thanks," Wallace said, accepting the bottle. "So, how are things with Parker?" he asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Not so good. She dumped me shortly before you showed up to bash my face in," Logan said dryly. "I'm surprised you didn't run into her in the lobby."

"She dumped you?"

"She thinks I beat up Piz because I'm still in love with Veronica."

Wallace paused for a moment. Should I ask? Ah, what the hell—"Are you?"

"Yeah," Logan said matter-of-factly, without hesitation. "I still loved her after I broke up with her, so I sure as hell still love her after she broke up with me. I didn't mean to hurt Parker—I like her a lot. But I'm definitely not over Veronica. I just—."

There was a knock at the door. "Room service!"

"Saved by the bell, so to speak," Logan said a little too brightly as he got up to answer the door. He signed the tab as the waiter pushed the cart into the suite, then picked up the two plates and handed one to Wallace. He sat back down on the couch.

"Here's the thing. I know you two are BFFs and all that, but you can't tell her what I just said. There's a guy code about this sort of thing."

"Your relationship with my BFF is none of my business," Wallace said. "One minute you hate each other, then suddenly you love each other—I can't keep track anymore."

"Me neither," Logan gave a wry laugh. "You also can't tell her that we're tracking down this video together—she'll be really pissed if she finds out I'm involved at all."

"I won't say anything. Better that she not know I'm working on it either," Wallace said. "She never wants me to get too involved in these things."

"Good," Logan replied. "OK, now about Chip Diller…"

The next morning in the Hearst food court, Wallace sat at his usual table, eating breakfast with Veronica and trying to act casual while glancing nervously at the door every few minutes.

"Come on, Wallace, what's going on?" Veronica asked. "First, you won't tell me what happened with Logan last night, and now you're acting all jumpy."

"It's nothing, I'm fine," Wallace said as Logan walked in. The hits Wallace had gotten in the day before had bruised and scabbed over, and Logan looked pretty bad.

"Oh my God, Wallace, did you do that?" Veronica asked.

"Yeah," he answered, barely restraining a small grin. "I told him he'd better not mess with my friends again."

Logan glanced over at their table and gave Wallace an almost imperceptible nod. For Veronica's benefit, Wallace shot what he hoped was a steely glare in Logan's direction.

"Wallace…" Veronica said in a warning tone. "You could have gotten hurt!"

"Does it look like he hurt me?" he answered with a smile, raising a hand to indicate his unmarred face. His ribs were pretty sore from hitting the coffee table, but she didn't need to know that. "Turns out I'm a better fighter than I thought."

"Well, I am a little bit impressed, Muhammad Ali, but don't make it a habit, please."

Wallace smiled, but was only half-listening as he saw Logan approach Chip Diller, sitting with some other Pi Sigs two tables away.

"So I'm trying to find out who made that video, but I'm not having much luck," Veronica chattered on. "I tried to get Dick to tell me who sent it to him, but he claims that he doesn't remember, and that he deleted the e-mail. I may use my keycard to break into the suite and look for myself."

Wallace tried to look like he was paying attention to Veronica as he tried to hear Logan's conversation with Chip.

"Whoa, dude, what happened to you?" Chip said on Logan's approach.

"You may have seen a certain NC-17 video of my ex-girlfriend making the e-mail rounds?"

Chip guffawed. "Oh yeah, everyone's seen that. Good stuff."

Wallace knew Logan was fighting every urge to punch Chip as he continued. "Well, she thinks I'm the one who did that, so she sent one of her goons to pay me back."

"And you didn't do it? Man, that sucks," Chip said sympathetically.

"Yeah, it does. So here's the deal—if I had to take the punishment, I might as well commit the crime. I need to find out who made that video so I can get the original file, because I know a few web sites that might be interested in it."

"'Cause she was involved in all that stuff with your dad, huh?" Chip suggested.

"Yeah," Logan answered, gritting his teeth. "It's about time that bitch got what she deserved." Wallace winced.

Chip laughed and gave him a high-five as Logan put on his biggest fake smile.

"I don't know who made the video," Chip said, "but I got it from Dominick Desante. He might know. He lives in Benes—he's probably home now if you want to catch up with him."

"Cool, thanks."

"Be careful though, man," Chip said seriously. "Veronica Mars is more dangerous than she looks. If she finds out what you're doing, she'll do a lot worse damage than that," he said, pointing to Logan's black eye.

"Believe me, I know," Logan said, clasping hands with Chip. "I can handle Veronica Mars."

"Good luck!" Chip called out cheerfully as Logan strode over to the coffee counter.

"…but the professor said he'd extend the deadline another week, so at least I can focus on the test and worry about the paper later," Veronica finished.

"Oh!" Wallace remembered she was still talking. "That's good." He watched out of the corner of his eye as Logan left the food court, coffee and Pop Tart in hand.

A few seconds later, his phone beeped with a text. "Going to talk to Desante. C u in soc."

An hour later, Wallace had settled into his seat in sociology when Logan slid into the chair next to him.

"I talked to Dominick, and while he was supportive of my plan to wreak revenge on my ex, he wouldn't tell me who made the video," Logan reported. "He said he didn't know, but I think he was lying. He was acting all shifty."

"Damn," Wallace hissed. "What do we do now?"

"Like I said before, we need to ask ourselves WWVD—What Would Veronica Do?"

Wallace thought for a minute. "Veronica would have Mac hack into the guy's e-mail to see who sent him the message."

"We can't ask Mac—she'll just tell Veronica," Logan replied.

"What about her boy?"

"Max? Good idea—he helped me with a computer thing a while back, and Mac seems to think he's pretty good at that stuff."

"And I don't think he's above a little petty crime," Wallace responded. "I know where he lives, so we can stop by there after class."

The auditorium came to a hush as the professor walked in and began his lecture. As he pulled out his notebook, Wallace remembered something he needed to tell Logan. He jotted it down and pushed the notebook in Logan's direction: "After Max's, we need to go to your place—V plans to break in to check Dick's email." Logan nodded, rolling his eyes with a sigh.

"Gentlemen!" Max said brightly as he opened his door. "What can I do for you?" They walked into Max's room as he closed the door behind them.

"We need your help with something," Wallace said.

"I'm actually having a going-out-of-business sale, so if you both need the same 'study guide,' I'll give you half off the second copy," Max began.

"You're going out of business?" Wallace asked.

"Yeah, my source in the campus IT department told me that the Hearst Powers That Be found out about my web site and they've hired a security consultant to track me down," Max explained. "I've got a couple more days until I have to shut down, because if they catch me I'll probably go to jail."

"Jail? For selling tests?" Wallace thought about what he had risked by purchasing one of Max's "study guides" a few months earlier.

"The amount of money I was earning makes it a felony instead of a misdemeanor, so, yeah—jail."

"How much could you be making?" Wallace asked.

"About six grand a month."

Wallace's eyes bugged out. "Jesus!" Logan didn't react. "That's actually a lot of money to most people, you know," Wallace said, a little snottily.

Logan narrowed his eyes. "I got that, thanks."

"Plus, I was thinking about shutting down anyway—Mac isn't thrilled about my business venture. She'd rather I used my powers for good."

"So you were gonna to give up six grand a month for your girl?" Wallace almost couldn't believe it.

"The things we do for love," Max said, smacking Logan lightly on the shoulder. "Am I right?"

"Actually, that's sort of why we're here," Logan said, clearing his throat. "But before we say anything, you have to promise us you won't tell Mac what we're doing. She'll just tell Veronica and we'll all be in trouble."

"OK…" Max said warily. "I don't know about keeping stuff from Mac, but…"

"There's this video going around," Logan began.

"I know the one," Max interjected. Wallace and Logan both frowned. "Well, I didn't watch the whole thing when I saw it was Veronica! Anyway, I heard that neither of them even knew they were being recorded."

"They didn't. So we need to find out who did it," Logan continued. "We've tracked it back to Dominick Desante, but he won't tell us anything. So we were wondering…"

"If I can hack into his e-mail and find out where he got it?" Max finished. "Heh—Veronica has Mac do this kind of stuff for her all the time. If Desante used his Hearst e-mail account, it should be pretty easy. Give me a couple days, and I'll let you know when I've got it. And I won't tell Mac, since it's for a good cause."

"Thanks, man." Logan and Wallace each entered their numbers into Max's phone, then headed back outside.

"So I guess there's not much we can do until we hear from Max," Logan sighed. "I'm thinking I might actually do some homework. I heard there was something due for sociology this week—what are we supposed to do?"

"Maybe if you showed up to class once in a while, you'd know," Wallace groused.

"Since when do you care?"

"Since I almost blew everything—my scholarship, my admission here—because I was so desperate to pass a class that I bought one of those tests. I can't fail, or I'm out of here because I won't be able to afford this place. But you just show up whenever you feel like it, because if you fail, you can just pay to take the class again, or quit college altogether and spend the rest of your life surfing or drinking or whatever else you do. You don't even have to try and everything's still going to fall into place for you."

"I'm sorry my lax attitude toward academic achievement offends you, but if you think I've got it easy because I've got money, you clearly have not been paying attention to the shithole that is my life," Logan said tersely, trying to keep his voice down so passing students wouldn't listen in. "You've got to work to keep your scholarship? Well, boo-fucking-hoo. At least you can work to get what you don't have. Do you think that if I work hard enough, Veronica will come back to me? How big of a check should I write to make my sister give a shit enough to call me on my goddamn birthday? Or to make Aaron a good dad instead of a murdering, adulterous bastard?" Logan's voice caught in his throat and got hoarse and quiet. "If I work real hard or write a big check, _will my mom come back_?"

"I-I didn't…" Wallace began.

"Whatever. Fuck off," Logan spat as he walked away.

Wallace stood still for a moment. Then he reached into his book bag, pulled out his phone, and dialed. "Hi, mom…Nothing, just calling to say hi…"


	3. Chapter 3

As Wallace headed back to his dorm room the following afternoon, he saw Veronica a few paces ahead of him. He jogged to catch up with her and then hip-checked her, knocking her off course.

"Hey, Supafly!"

"Hey, yourself," she laughed as she knocked back into him. "What's shakin'?"

"Nothing—I'm just stopping back at the room to grab some books before I go to the library," he said.

Veronica stopped in the hallway. "Hey, I saw you and Logan having it out over on south campus yesterday morning. What was that all about? Is this still…"

Wallace stopped and faced her. "No, nothing like that," he said, glad he could tell her the truth—mostly. "He wanted the sociology assignment and I told him he should try showing up for class instead."

"Why would he ask you, after the other night?"

"Because I'm the only person he knows in the class."

"Huh," Veronica said thoughtfully.

"Like I said, he never shows up. Anyway, what are you doing here?" he said in an effort to change the subject.

She let out a long sigh. "I need to talk to Piz."

"Oh, that doesn't sound good."

"It's not," Veronica said. "It's just…he's a really nice guy, you know? But he just doesn't get me. All day yesterday and today, people around here have been giving us looks and snarky comments about that video, and he just keeps telling me to ignore them. He won't even help me try to find out who made the recording, saying that I should just let it go. But I can't let it go—I'm just not built that way. Someone has to pay."

"It's the rule you live by," Wallace agreed. They started walking again toward Wallace and Piz's dorm room.

"I think we're just too different," Veronica continued. "It's probably not the best time to do this, since he's still recovering from an attack by my ex, but there's no sense in dragging things out."

"I guess that's true." Wallace had really wanted his friends' relationship to work out, but he knew Veronica was right. "I'll just stop in to get my books and then get out of your way. But call me after you leave, so I can come back and drink with Piz while he bitches about you."

Veronica threw an arm over his shoulder as they approached the door. "You're a good friend."

"I try," Wallace agreed.

The next day, Wallace showed up early for sociology, sitting in the back and hoping Logan would come to class that day. When Logan came through the door, he jumped when Wallace quickly stood up and thrust a sheaf of paper toward him.

"What's this?" Logan asked, looking at the papers but not at Wallace.

"It's the material for the thing due this week. The assignment sheet is on top, and I made copies of the articles we need to read for it."

"Thanks." Logan took the papers and perused the top page.

"Listen, I just want to—"

"Forget it," Logan stopped him. "I guess I'm still pissed about what happened to Veronica, and I took it out on you."

"Well, I did the same thing," Wallace said. "For the same reason, I think."

The two looked around awkwardly, not knowing what to say next. Just then, the professor walked in and began organizing his notes, and Wallace sat back down in his seat. Logan stepped over his lap and slouched into the seat next to him.

When class was over, Wallace gathered his things and walked toward the front of the room to talk to one of his teammates. Logan gave him a little salute and headed out the door. Halfway down the aisle, Wallace remembered that Piz was going to wait for him outside the classroom. Oh, crap. He turned and ran toward the exit, hoping Piz and Logan wouldn't see each other.

Of course, they saw each other one second before Wallace came through the doorway. He froze, waiting to see what would happen.

"Piz—just who I was looking for," Logan said.

"Really," Piz replied, standing up to his full height but still looking very nervous.

"Listen, man, I am truly sorry. For everything," Logan said sincerely, shoving his hands into his pockets. "I thought—well, you know what I thought. I'm sorry I jumped to conclusions when we don't really know each other. I should have at least talked to Wallace first."

"Well, uh, it's OK…" Piz said, crossing his arms in front of him.

"No, it's not. I'm a jackass. I know this doesn't make it better, but I wanted to tell you I was sorry anyway. So…I've gotta go…"

Wallace waited until Logan walked away before he approached Piz.

"Did you see that?" Piz asked. "That was weird. I didn't expect that."

Wallace and Piz started walking the opposite way down the hall. "Yeah, well, people surprise you sometimes."

The next morning, Wallace and Logan got a text from Max, telling them to meet him at his dorm room at 3:00. They arrived separately, just in case Veronica was around again.

"Getting into Desante's e-mail was pretty easy," Max explained after they sat down. "It was the research that took a while. I found out that Desante got the video from a student here named Gorya Sorokin. I thought his last name sounded familiar, so I did some creative Googling, put out a few feelers, and it turns out that this guy is connected. I mean, _connected_ connected."

"How?" Logan asked.

"His dad is a circuit court judge," Max said, sifting through the printouts of his research. "But there have always been rumors that he's tied to the Russian mob in Southern California, and it looks like that may be true. If it is, that means they run a good chunk of the local heroin trade."

"Whoa," Wallace breathed, picking up one of the articles.

"There's more," Max added. "Have you guys heard of The Castle?"

"I have," Wallace said.

"I haven't," Logan asked. "What is it?"

"It's like Yale's Skull and Crossbones—it's a secret society of the rich and powerful, and the soon-to-be rich and powerful. They wanted to recruit me," Wallace explained.

"And you didn't do it?" Max asked incredulously.

"Nah, there's some creepy shit going down with those guys," Wallace said. "They make you tell all your deepest, darkest secrets, so they can hold it over your head in case you ever cross them. They spy on you and try to learn every little thing about you. They… Damn it!"

"What?" said Logan and Max, in unison.

Wallace stood and started pacing angrily. "That's where the video came from! Nobody was after Veronica. The Castle was trying to get dirt on me." He punched the door. "Ow! Fuck!"

"OK, hold on—before you hit anything else, are you sure?" Logan stood up slowly.

"Yeah, they knew all about my time in Chicago when I was living with my dad, they knew everything," Wallace said, cradling his hand.

Logan opened Max's mini-fridge and pulled out a can of Skist. "Here, it's better than nothing." Wallace held the cold can against his throbbing knuckles.

"Well, the Sorokins are supposedly involved in The Castle on top of everything else, so there may not be anything you can do to Gorya without getting yourselves into some deep, deep shit," Max said.

"How do you know they're in The Castle? It's supposed to be all hush-hush," said Wallace, sitting down again.

"There's this article from the Hearst Free Press a couple years ago," Max said, pulling out another printout. "The reporter wasn't able to find out much, but she listed a few people who were rumored to be involved, including Judge Sorokin and—you guys will find this especially interesting—Jake Kane."

"Can I see that?" Logan ran a hand through his hair as he looked through the article. "Of course. Why am I not surprised?"

"Sorry I couldn't help out more," Max sighed. "It looks like this Sorokin kid is kind of untouchable."

"Not necessarily," Logan said thoughtfully.

"Why? What are you thinking?" Wallace asked.

"I'll tell you outside—it's probably better that Max doesn't know," Logan said. "I think we've made him risk his ass enough as it is." He slapped Max on the back.

Max laughed. "Not a problem. It was fun getting involved in one last illegal scheme before I go onto the straight and narrow. Let me know how it works out."

"If it works the way I hope it will, you'll definitely know," Logan said, a little ominously, as he and Wallace left.

"It's worth a try," Wallace whispered, after Logan explained his idea. They'd found a deserted study area in the science building where they could talk and Veronica was unlikely to see them.

"If you don't want to come, I understand," Logan said. "I can do this by myself if you want to steer clear of trouble."

"No, I'm in. Let's do it." Wallace started gathering up his things, sighing angrily.

"What?" Logan asked.

"I still can't believe that all this is because of me."

"You?"

"If The Castle wasn't spying on me, then they wouldn't have recorded Veronica and she wouldn't be going through all this," Wallace said. "That video is out there because of me."

"The Castle didn't care about Veronica—that video is out there because Sorokin got a hold of it and decided to share with his friends," Logan said.

Wallace shrugged.

"Look, you can't blame yourself because someone else decided to act like an asshole," Logan continued. "I could say it's my fault, because if Veronica and I were still together, she wouldn't have been with Piznarski at all and we wouldn't be having this conversation. But the situation was what it was, and then someone acted like an asshole. It's not your fault and it's not my fault. It's Sorokin's."

"The asshole," Wallace replied, smiling a little.

Logan chuckled. "Exactly."

They started making their way toward the exit. "So, you got big plans tonight?" asked Logan, changing the subject.

"I've gotta finish that sociology thing tonight, but right now I'm heading home to have dinner," Wallace answered.

"Ah, the benefits of being a townie," Logan snickered goodnaturedly.

"Yeah, my mom's a good cook. What about you?"

"The usual—room service, video games, maybe some homework if the mood strikes," Logan replied.

Wallace thought for a second. "Why don't you come with me to my mom's?"

"That's OK, I'm fine with my buffalo burgers," Logan said.

"Come on, man, you need some real food. Plus, if you're there, she won't ask me about my engineering grades. And if we bring our stuff, we can work on the sociology after dinner. While we eat pie."

Logan's eyes lit up. "What time are we leaving?"

As they drove to the Fennels house, Wallace realized Logan wasn't asking for directions. "How do you know where I live?"

"I've dropped Veronica off there a few times," Logan explained.

"Why didn't you ever come in with her?"

"I don't know—she never asked me to," Logan said. "She said that your mom wasn't too crazy about her. I guess she figured I wasn't going to help in that matter.

"I bet she's introduced her to Piz, though," he added bitterly. "Everybody's parents _loooove_ Piz."

"Doesn't matter—they broke up," Wallace said. He'd been waiting two days for the opportunity to let that information slip.

Logan paused. "Huh." He didn't say anything else until they pulled up in front of the Fennels' house.

When they walked in the door, they were hit with the smell of meatloaf cooking in the oven. "Hi, honey," said Alicia Fennel, enveloping her oldest son in a hug.

"Hi, Mom," he said, squeezing her back. "Mom, this is Logan."

"Hi, Mrs. Fennel," Logan looked nervous and extended his hand awkwardly. "Um, thanks for having me over."

 _Heh heh—Fists of Fury over there is afraid of my mom_ , Wallace thought with glee.

"You're welcome. I'm glad you could make it," Alicia said, perhaps a little too formally.

"Wallace!" A boy-shaped bullet shot out of the hallway and nearly knocked Wallace down.

"Hey, Darryl," said Wallace, giving his little brother a hug.

"Are you Logan?" Darryl asked the stranger in the entryway.

"Yeah," Logan answered. "Hi, Darryl." He shook the boy's hand.

"Hi. Mom said you were coming over," the boy babbled. "I have a new NFL game for my Playstation. Do you guys want to play with me?"

"Sure—you guys play and I'll take winner," Wallace suggested.

But as the three boys moved toward the living room, Alicia called Wallace back. "Can you help me get the dinner ready?"

Once they were out of earshot, she gave her son a concerned look. "Logan Echolls? Really?"

"You said it was OK."

"Well, you'd already invited him. What was I supposed to say?" she replied. "But I don't know if you should be spending time with that kid." She lowered her voice further. "Do you know what people say about him?"

"Come on, Mom," Wallace said, exasperated. "You know as well as I do that half the stuff that 'people' say around here is crap. He's had some bad things happen to him, but I think he's basically a good guy."

"I thought you didn't even like him," Alicia countered. "That's what you said when he was dating Veronica."

"Yeah, well, I didn't really know him then," Wallace explained. "We've been, uh, working on a project together, and I'm thinking he's all right."

Alicia sighed and handed him a bowl of potatoes. "Here, mash these."

As he mashed, Wallace decided to get some insight from his mother. "Since Logan and I started working on this thing, I'm realizing that even though he dated my best friend on and off for more than two years, I barely knew him. And Mac didn't really know him until he dated her roommate a little while ago."

"Who's Mac?" Alicia asked.

"See? That's what I mean," Wallace said, growing agitated and mashing vigorously. "Mac's really good friends with Veronica too, but I barely knew her until we started ending up at the Hearst food court at the same time each morning. How is it that we're all such good friends with Veronica and we've been going to the same schools for three years, and we're practically strangers?"

"Um, I think these are mashed enough, thanks," said Alicia, gently taking the bowl out of his hands. "It sounds to me like you need to figure out why Veronica feels the need to keep her friends separate."

Wallace thought about that while he took out the glasses and silverware.

"Actually, I'm surprised to hear all this," Alicia added. "I was under the impression that you and Veronica didn't have any secrets."

"Yeah, me too," Wallace replied softly.

"Come here, sweetie." Alicia gave him a hug. "I'm sure you'll figure this one out. You've always been a good judge of people. That's why I'm going to take your word for it about Logan. But please be careful—with those bruises, it's obvious that he's been in a fight pretty recently, and I don't want you getting involved in that sort of thing."

"Yes, Mom."

After dinner, Logan and Wallace took over the living room, spreading their books and sprawling their limbs across most of the furniture. They were mostly quiet for the next two hours, except for the munching of Alicia's homemade strawberry pie and the occasional curse directed at their sociology professor. Eventually, it was time to clear out.

As they gathered up their things, Wallace decided to ask one of the many non-sociology questions that had been rattling around in his brain most of the evening. "So, don't you think it's kind of weird, that after all these years of hanging around with Veronica, this is the first time we've ever had a real conversation, except for that physics thing in high school? It's weird, right?"

"I never really thought about it, but I guess so," Logan agreed. "When we were going out—you know, publicly—we hung out with my friends sometimes, but never hers."

"Mac's like, her best girlfriend, and I didn't know her until pretty recently," Wallace noted. "It's like she doesn't want one friend to come in contact with another. We all have to stay in our little compartments."

"Well, she does have some major control issues," Logan said. "She's always afraid of revealing too much. But you can't really push the issue or she'll take off."

Wallace nodded.

"So you just have to wait, and hope she'll decide to let you in," Logan continued. "Or say what you need her to say…" He stopped and took a deep breath. "We'd better go."

After good-byes and thank-yous to Alicia, they left the Fennel home to return to campus.

"Your mom's all right, huh?" Logan asked as they piled into the car.

"Yeah, she is," Wallace agreed. "She's kind of a hard-ass sometimes, but she's just looking out for me and Darryl. And she's not as tough as she pretends to be—whenever I was grounded, I noticed that she would always put extra snacks in my lunch."

Logan laughed. "One more thing," he added seriously.

"Yeah?"

"She's hot."

"Shut up, man."

"I mean it! I'm surprised I never noticed your mom before. She's so tall, and that pretty smile…" Logan smirked.

"Shut UP!"

When Wallace arrived at sociology the next day, Logan was waiting outside.

"We have to go now," he said hurriedly. "Max just called and said that Veronica's got Mac helping her track down whoever made the video. He thinks they're pretty close to finding the same information he did. Let's face it—Veronica is smarter than we are, so if we don't do this now, she's going to catch up to us. The whole point of this exercise was to try and keep her out of trouble for once."

"OK, let's go," Wallace said. They took a few steps, then Wallace stopped. "Wait! We'd better turn in the assignment first."

They turned in their papers, made lame excuses to the professor, and left campus. After a short drive through Neptune, they pulled into the guest parking lot at Kane Software.

Upon walking into the lobby, Logan approached the security desk and announced, "We're here to see Jake. Tell him it's Logan Echolls, and I'm here about Duncan."


	4. Chapter 4

In a few short minutes, an assistant arrived to take them to Mr. Kane's office.

Jake Kane looked like hell. He'd grown out a scraggly beard, and his eyes looked dark and sunken, as if he hadn't slept well in a very long time. When Logan and Wallace entered the room, he leapt out from behind his desk.

"Logan! What about Duncan? Have you heard from him?" Jake said desperately, grabbing Logan by the shoulders. Wallace felt really guilty about what Logan was about to say.

"No, I haven't. I just needed to make sure you'd see me."

Jake staggered backward, covering his mouth with his hand. "Get out," he hissed. "I'm calling security."

"I wouldn't do that yet," Logan said, stepping toward Jake. "I'm here because Veronica Mars is about to expose The Castle and its association with the Sorokins."

Damn, he has got no fear, Wallace thought. Or he's really good at making it look that way.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Jake responded.

"I think you do, so you will listen to what I have to say. Gorya Sorokin recorded Veronica and her boyfriend without their knowledge and distributed it on the Internet. Now she's pissed and looking for revenge, and that's not going to go well for anyone."

Wallace was sure he saw Jake Kane startle just a bit, but he recovered quickly.

"Why should I care about what happens to Veronica Mars?" he asked.

"There was a time when you cared a whole lot about what happened to her," Logan said.

Jake grew more agitated. "She sent my son away!"

"They had to do that!" Logan said, growing louder. "Meg's parents were abusing her little sister, and they would have done the same to Duncan's daughter. He was protecting his kid."

"I would have protected her!" Jake was near tears.

"Really, Mr. Kane? Really?" Logan said through gritted teeth. "How would you know if she actually needed help, or if she was just the school troublemaker?"

"What are you talking about?" Jake asked. _Yeah, what are you talking about?_ Wallace wondered.

Logan took another threatening step toward Jake. "When Duncan and I were 10, I told him what my dad was doing to me, and he said he was going to tell you so you could help! But you told him that I was just making up stories, trying to stir things up because I was such a troublemaker at school."

"Logan…" Jake began.

"Did you really think that all those black eyes and broken noses were from fights with other grade schoolers?" Logan was yelling now, and gesticulating wildly. "And why do you think I slept over at your house so many nights—because Celeste was such a warm hostess? You knew. You fucking knew what was happening to me, and you didn't do shit about it! You stood idly by while Aaron whipped me bloody so you wouldn't have to risk sullying the precious Kane reputation by getting involved! So I think you'll have to forgive Duncan and Veronica for thinking that you might not be a whole lot of goddamned help with Meg's family."

Jake opened his mouth as if to say something, then simply looked down. Logan paused for a moment to catch his breath.

"Look, I don't give a shit about The Castle, and I don't care about the Kane reputation anymore," Logan said, in a more normal tone. "All I care about is keeping Veronica safe, which is why I don't want her going after the Sorokins."

"What am I supposed to do about it?" Jake asked.

"You know that Gorya is being recruited by The Castle, so when Veronica finds that out, of course she's going to find out about you and your fellow Castle members," Logan explained, "and she's going to find out about the Sorokin family business. When that happens, you'd really better start worrying about the Kane reputation."

"Why?" Jake asked, faux-innocently.

"Don't bullshit me, Jake!" Logan grew angry again. "You know what the Sorokins are into. When this Castle crap comes out, everyone is going to know that Jake Kane is best buds with a bunch of heroin dealers. Your stockholders probably aren't going to like that very much."

Jake looked resigned. "What do you want me to do?" he sighed.

"Have the Sorokins taken down before The Castle gets dragged into it," Wallace piped up.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Veronica's friend," Wallace said, intentionally leaving his name out of it, since his mom still worked at Kane Software. "We know you've got piles of dirt on all the members of The Castle, so all you need to do is provide the Neptune Police Department with some of the information you have on the Sorokin family. They go to jail, you stay out of it, Veronica doesn't have to get involved."

Jake stood still for a moment, thinking. "OK," he sighed, finally. "It might take a few days to put everything in place."

"The sooner the better," Logan replied. "We're barely a step ahead of Veronica."

"I get it," Jake said, getting exasperated.

"Fine." Logan and Wallace made for the door. "Always a pleasure, Jake," Logan added with a little wave.

As Logan strode quickly and quietly through the building toward the exit, the shorter Wallace had to jog to keep up with him. When they got to the Range Rover, Logan put his arms against the hood and rested his head on them. Wallace waited, his hands in his pockets, and stared intently at his own shoes.

After a few minutes, Logan stood up, rubbed his eyes hard with the heels of his hands, and then tossed Wallace his keys.

"You should drive."

Both were quiet as Wallace carefully maneuvered Logan's enormous and expensive vehicle out of the Kane Software parking lot. As they drove down the main road back toward campus, Logan had one foot on the seat, resting his elbow on his knee and pulling at his hair while he stared out the window.

Wallace finally broke the silence. "Daaaaaaamn."

Logan cocked an eyebrow at him but didn't say anything.

"That was fucking awesome!" Wallace yelled with a huge grin, pounding the steering wheel for emphasis.

Logan tried not to laugh but couldn't help himself. "Yeah, I guess I've been holding that one in for a while, huh?"

"'Don't bullshit me, Jake!' You have got some huge balls, man," Wallace laughed. "You do not back down."

"It's a gift," Logan said, laughing again. He took his foot off the seat and flexed his hands, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. "OK, suddenly I'm starving. We need to stop for food."

"I like the way you think. Burritos?"

"Sí. Vamonos, amigo."

The weekend was one of the longest in Wallace's life. All day Saturday, every phone call and text message made him jump, hoping there would be some news, but there never was; most of the texts were Darryl gloating over his latest NFL game score. Wallace kept himself busy with his impossibly difficult take-home final for engineering.

Late Sunday morning, as he hovered over his laptop, Wallace's phone chimed with a text, startling him yet again. He looked at the screen to see a message from Max: "M&V know abt GS." Shit. I have to find out what they know.

He met the girls for lunch at the food court, as usual. Max arrived a few minutes later.

"Max, you remember Wallace, from Parker's party?" Mac said perkily, as Max leaned down and kissed her.

"Uh, yeah, good to see you again, man," Max said, shaking Wallace's hand.

"So," Wallace said, trying to sound casual. "What's up with the investigation into your celebrity sex tape?"

"Oo, I'm famous now?" Veronica said excitedly. "Maybe I can have my own reality show—P.I.s Gone Wild!" She mimed pulling her shirt up for an imaginary camera. "Woo!"

"We tracked the e-mail back to a student here named Gorya Sorokin," Mac explained. "Apparently, his family has some ties to the Russian mob. We've been looking for him since yesterday but no one has seen him."

"His roommate says he hasn't been around at all since Friday afternoon," Veronica added, "so we're guessing he went away for the weekend."

"Yeah, maybe he'll turn up on Monday," Max said, with a sidelong glance toward Wallace.

Wallace tried to ignore him. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Wallace, I don't want you getting involved in this," Veronica said. "It looks like it could be dangerous."

"Oh, so it's OK for you to risk your neck but I need to be protected?"

"It's not that, it's just—" she began.

"Forget it. I'll be at the coffee counter if you need a fake hall pass," Wallace huffed. While he waited for his coffee, Max came up behind him.

"The guy is missing?" he said in a stage whisper.

Wallace said, turning his back toward the table where Veronica and Mac were watching them with curiosity. "For all we know, Sorokin could have gone to Tijuana for the weekend. Let's at least wait until tomorrow before we freak out."

Max took a deep breath. "OK. Just let me know if you hear anything."

Wallace got his coffee in a take-out cup and the two went back to the table.

"That looked like a serious conversation," Veronica asked. "What was that all about?" Wallace didn't answer her.

"We, uh, were just talking about the new slasher flick that opens in the theater in town this next weekend," Max said quickly. "Anyone want to see it?"

"I have to head out," Wallace said abruptly. He picked up his bag and walked out without looking at Veronica. Once outside the doors, he pulled out his phone to call Logan and give him the latest on Veronica's investigation.

The next morning when Wallace arrived at sociology, Logan was already sitting in the auditorium with his feet up on the seat in front of him.

"You're here," Wallace noted.

"It's becoming a nasty habit," Logan mumbled around the pen he was chewing on. "Do anything this weekend?"

"Nothing fun—just studied for engineering. How about you?"

"Dick and I got pretty wasted Friday night, so most of Saturday was a wash, but I actually read for econ most of the day yesterday."

"Really?"

"Try to control your surprise," Logan replied dryly. "I do study sometimes. I can't spend my whole life surfing and drinking, you know."

Wallace laughed, but then grew more serious. "The suspense of this is killing me."

"Yeah, me too," Logan rubbed his forehead. "The longer we wait, the more I start to wonder if we did the right thing. We did, didn't we?"

The professor got ready to begin class.

Wallace thought for a moment, then whispered, "We had to do something. We couldn't let anyone get away with what they did to her."

A few minutes before the end of class, Logan's phone buzzed softly. He glanced at the screen, then held it out for Wallace to see. The message had one word: "Done."

Wallace looked at Logan, eyes wide. Jake? he mouthed. Logan nodded.

As soon as the professor ended his lecture, they grabbed their things and bolted out of the classroom.

"We need a computer," Logan said breathlessly.

"Student union," Wallace said, and they took off running. As they ran across the quad, Wallace thought he saw a petite blonde watching him from the library steps, but he didn't have time to stop and make excuses.

When they finally got to a computer, Logan slid into the chair and quickly typed the address of the Neptune Register website. With Wallace reading over his shoulder, they saw the Breaking News headline: "Judge Sorokin arrested; ties to mob, heroin."

"Click on the article, click on the article!" Wallace directed, pointing frantically.

The accompanying story explained that the Neptune police—ably led by acting Sheriff Keith Mars, of course—had pulled off a major sting over the weekend, breaking up one of the biggest heroin operations in Southern California. It also mentioned that the judge's son Gorya, a student at Hearst College, was among those arrested. Smiles slowly crept on to both of their faces as they realized what they had accomplished.

Wallace clapped Logan's shoulders with both hands. "Yeah! Do you see that? Do you see that?"

"Yeah." Logan didn't take his eyes off the screen, but he held one palm up for a victory high-five.

"Whoo!" Wallace paced back and forth next to the computer desk, all hopped up on adrenaline. Some nearby students looked over at him.

"Hey man, we still have to keep this all under wraps," Logan said under his breath. "If the wrong people know that we were involved…"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it. I'm just kind of pumped up right now," Wallace said, shaking out his hands to release some of his excess energy. "And relieved."

"Yeah, me—"

"Dude! Did you delete the Veronica porn? What the fuck?"

"Hi, Dick," Logan replied, looking over Wallace's shoulder as his roommate approached.

"You. Do not. Delete. My porn," Dick said, punctuating each phrase with a point of his finger. "I know she's your ex and all, but that is seriously uncool."

"Dude, I had to delete it," Logan explained. "I heard she was trying to track down the original video, and she was going to check your e-mail to do it. If you told her you didn't have it and she found out that you lied to her…" Logan left the sentence hanging, allowing Dick's imagination to fill in the blanks.

Dick thought for a moment, then shuddered. "Well, in that case, I guess it's OK. But for future reference: No deleting porn."

"Got it, man. I was just looking out for you."

"Thanks." Dick turned his attention to Wallace, standing next to him. "Do I know you?"

"Um, yeah. We went to Neptune High together?" Wallace spoke slowly and clearly, as though to a child.

Dick studied him for a moment. "Hey, you were on the basketball team, weren't you?" Wallace nodded. "Fennel, right? Yeah! How've you been?" Dick slapped him on the back.

"Uh, fine thanks."

"Cool, cool." Dick gestured toward the computer. "Are you guys are trying to get porn here? You know, they've got software on these machines that keep you from doing that." He came around the table and peered at the computer screen. "Sorokin? Is that Gorya Sorokin's dad or something?"

"Yeah," Logan confirmed. "You know him?"

"Nah, not really," Dick said. "I just know people who know him, but I always thought he was kind of an asshole. He tried to bring some hard shit to a Pi Sig shindig one time and Chip and I had to throw him out. That is not how the Pi Sigs party." A willowy brunette passed through the lobby, catching Dick's eye. "Gotta go. Hey, Rebecca!"

"We'd better scram too, if we don't want Veronica to see us together," Wallace noted.

Logan sighed. "Good point. Well, it was a pleasure working with you, Detective Fennel."

"You too," Wallace said. He started to walk away and then turned around. "You know, Max said that there's a new horror movie playing at the Neptune Cinema. I was gonna see if he wanted to catch it this weekend. You in?"

"Yeah, cool. Just give me a call after you talk to him and let me know when," Logan answered.

"OK, later."

By the following afternoon, Wallace still hadn't lost the spring in his step. After engineering, he bounced across campus to meet up with Veronica and Mac and walk to lunch with them. As he waited outside the building for them, Max arrived.

"Hey, Wallace," Max said.

"Did you see the news?" Wallace asked excitedly.

"I did! Very nice," Max said. "But I have to tell you—"

Before Max could finish, Mac slid up next to him and slipped her hand into his. "Hey, guys," she said, looking nervously between them.

"What did you do?" Veronica appeared next to Wallace, making him jump.

"What?"

"I watch the news, Wallace," she said, her arms folded angrily. "I saw what happened to the Sorokin family. What did you do?"

"I don't know what you mean," he replied.

"Really? Can I ask your good buddy Logan and see if he knows?"

Wallace opened his mouth to respond, but before he could say anything, Veronica cut him off.

"Don't insult me by lying to me," she spat. "I saw you two together more than once, and you acted all jumpy and weird every time I mentioned my own investigation, so I looked at your phone and saw that you two have been calling each other a whole lot since last week. So since I don't think you and Logan are secretly dating, my next guess is you got involved in the case even though I told you not to."

"You looked through my phone?" Wallace asked in disbelief. "You were spying on me?"

"That's not the point! You could have been in some real danger!" Veronica said, trying to keep her voice under control.

"So could you! We were trying to protect you," he answered. "And we wanted to punish whoever made that video of you and sent it out."

"If I had wanted your help, I would have asked for it," Veronica said. She spun around and stalked off.

"Yeah, right!" Wallace shouted after her.

"OK, I know she's good," he said to Mac and Max, who were still standing there. "But even if she knew Logan and I had been talking, how did she figure out what we did?"

Max looked guilty. "I'm sorry, it was me. After I showed you guys those printouts of the research I did, I threw some extra copies in my recycling bin and then Mac saw them. She managed to wring the whole story out of me."

"Wring the story out of you?" Mac laughed. "All it took was a stern look from me and you sang like a canary." She turned toward Wallace. "Max clearly has no future in espionage."

Wallace frowned at Max, shaking his head.

"What can I say? I'm her bitch," Max said with a shrug.

"You are," Wallace agreed, "but it's not your fault. Damn, I can't believe she looked through my call list like that. How did she get my phone?"

"It was when you and Max went to the coffee counter at lunch on Sunday," Mac said. "I want it noted that I objected to said spying and my objections were overruled."

"I'm sure," Wallace said with a sigh. "Well, I'm just going to get lunch at the hot dog cart then. I'll see you two later."

When Wallace was still within earshot, he heard Mac giggle. "You're my bitch, hmm?"

"You know I am," Max growled. There was a pause in the conversation and Wallace didn't want to turn around and witness the PDA. "Whose dorm room is closer?"

"Yours," Mac said breathlessly. Wallace shook his head as the two scampered past him.

Logan was again already in sociology the next morning when Wallace arrived.

"Thanks for the heads' up about Veronica being on the warpath," Logan said by way of greeting. "I didn't answer my phone when her name popped up, but she really ripped my voicemail a new one."

"I bet," Wallace said. "Sorry, man."

"It's OK," Logan said, tapping his pen idly on his shoulder. "She's already holding so many grudges against me, what's one more?"

"You know what really pisses me off?" Wallace ranted. "All she can think about is how I disobeyed her orders. I mean, I don't expect a medal or anything, but would it kill her to say, 'Thank you, Wallace and Logan, for risking your own asses to save mine.'"

"No, but you're going to wait a long time before you hear that, my friend," Logan chuckled.

As the rest of the students settled into their seats to begin class, Wallace decided that he was going to take his biggest risk yet. He was going to confront Veronica Mars.


	5. Chapter 5

Wallace knew Veronica's schedule almost as well as his own, so he knew she was working in the library or at class the rest of the day. He didn't want to approach her in public—she'd already had more than her share of unwanted public attention in the last week, plus he didn't want her to be able to storm off. So that night, Wallace drove to the offices of Mars Investigations.

With Mr. Mars working as acting sheriff, his P.I. work was on hold, so Veronica was there by herself. She's worried about me, when she's always working at night with the front door unlocked? Someday one of those cheating spouses that she's caught in the act is going to come back here and…he tried to shake off the thoughts that always plagued him when Veronica worked late. He needed to focus on what he needed to say now.

Wallace walked through the office door and stood in the entryway. Veronica looked up from her paperwork.

"Wallace," she said with a fake, tight smile. "How can I help you? Are you tracking a serial killer? Maybe an international hit man?"

"Maybe you can look through my phone and find out." He walked into the office, holding his phone out to her. "This time, I'll just hand it over so you don't have to wait until I turn my back."

"I had to know what you were up to," Veronica said.

"You couldn't ask instead of spying on me?"

"You were trying to keep it from me," she retorted. "If I asked what you and Logan were doing, you wouldn't have told me."

"OK, that's probably true," Wallace said. "But if I had told you, you would have gotten mad anyway! We were violating the rules that you dictated for us, which apparently is a very serious offense."

She folded her arms defensively.

"Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about," he said loudly. "You have all these little rules in your head about how you want people to act, and then when they don't follow them, you decide that they've let you down and you get all pissy. We're human beings with free will—we're not always going to follow the Law of Veronica!"

"I do not get pissy," she said with a sneer.

"You do! I've always gone along with what you wanted, either because I agreed with you or because I just didn't want to rock the boat, but the one time I broke your unwritten rules, you got mad and stormed off on me! How long until Mac breaks a rule and you write her off too? And God knows, being punished for breaking your rules has become a way of life for Logan."

"Do not bring Logan into this!" Veronica said through gritted teeth, her voice rising. "He slept with Madison Sinclair. That is unforgivable."

"Oh, that is a bullshit excuse and you know it!" Wallace shouted. "You were broken up when that happened! What does it matter?"

She looked down at her desk for a moment and then back at Wallace. "It matters because she's the one who gave me the drugged drink at Shelly Pomroy's party," she said quietly.

"But she didn't know that," Wallace said, more gently. He sat down in the chair across from her as she gave him a look. "She did spit in your drink—which is so gross—but Madison isn't really responsible for what happened to you at that party. You know that."

Veronica leaned back in her chair, her arms still folded.

"And I will give you that she's a total skank, so I understand you wanting to place some blame on her," Wallace continued, "but is your grudge against her worth losing the love of your life?"

She opened her mouth to protest, but Wallace cut her off.

"You know I'm right," he said. "I've been the spectator to this thing for two years, and I'm not blind. You're completely in love with him, but you just can't let yourself admit it. I bet you've never even told him you love him." She drew in a sharp breath, but Wallace pretended not to notice. "You know what I think?"

"What?" Veronica said, more calmly.

"I think that when you guys got back together after Christmas break, you got mad at yourself for wanting him back so badly, so you were just waiting for any excuse to end it again," Wallace said, proud of that little insight. "That way, you wouldn't have to admit to yourself that Veronica Mars might actually need someone."

Veronica started as though he'd slapped her in the face.

Wallace panicked. He thought they were getting somewhere, but now he'd obviously hit a nerve. "Look," he said softly, leaning toward her. "I get why you don't want to need anyone, I do. But you have to let people in sometimes. Remember at the end of junior year, when you came over to my house and told me about all that shit that had been going on all year?"

She nodded slightly.

"I felt terrible that you'd had to go through all that. But I felt even worse about the fact that you didn't tell me about it sooner," Wallace continued. "You were going through, like, one of the worst times in your life, and I wasn't able to help you because you wouldn't let me in. I could have made it easier, even just a little bit, if you would have just let me help you."

"I couldn't tell anyone," she replied.

"Yes, you could. If you really trusted me, you could. But after everything we've been through, I don't think you really trust me. Veronica, you're my best friend—you're like the sister I never had. If you can't trust me, who can you?"

Her face softened, and Wallace hoped he was getting through to her.

"You've got friends who are willing to do absolutely anything for you," he continued. "Me, Mac, Logan—we've all put our asses on the line for you, over and over again, but you keep us at arm's length."

"What are you talking about?" Veronica's voice was more even, but her posture was still defensive.

"You've made sure that the people closest to you never get close to each other," Wallace explained. "Mac and Logan and I barely knew each other at all until recently. Does that make any sense? I really like Mac, but I didn't know that until we started meeting for lunch this semester. And how is it that your best girlfriend didn't know your boyfriend until he started dating someone else?"

Tears glistened in the corners of Veronica's eyes as she looked away from him.

"When you and Logan were dating, you knew I didn't like him very much, but you still didn't make an effort for us to get to know each other," he added. "You were OK with your best friend hating your boyfriend because that meant you still had some control over both of us."

Wallace scooted his chair closer to her.

"I'm just saying—I think you have a hard time letting yourself need people, but it ends up hurting those of us who need you," he finished.

Veronica turned her head back toward Wallace. She stared at him for a few seconds, her eyes still wet. He leaned back in his chair.

"Well," she began, "thank you so much for that insightful psychoanalysis. You've really figured me out. I'm so glad we had this little chat."

Wallace was stunned. "Hey—don't be like that!"

"No, really, I feel so much better," she said, her voice full of venom. "This has been so enlightening. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do." She got up from her desk and stalked into Keith's office, slamming the door behind her and locking it. Wallace went toward the door.

"Come on, Veronica, open up," he said. He thought he heard her crying, but he wasn't sure. "Talk to me, girl. I love you and I can't stand for things to be this way between us. Come on…"

But after fifteen minutes of pleading with a locked door, Wallace gave up and went back to his car.

Wallace spent the following day trying to "accidentally" bump into Veronica, hoping that they'd be able to patch things up after she'd had a chance to think about what he said and sleep on it. But after waiting outside her criminology class and her English class, and later dropping by the library during her usual shift, he realized she hadn't come to school that day. He called Mac, Max, and even Parker—who was still a little mad at Veronica—but nobody had seen her.

He felt sick all day. That evening, he sat alone at the food court, picking at his dinner, when Logan approached.

"All by yourself?"

"Yeah, Veronica's avoiding me, I think," Wallace replied, dropping his fork on the tray.

"Still mad about our little caper, huh?"

"Nah, it's more than that," Wallace said. "I went to her office last night to talk to her about the whole thing, and I ended up telling her that I think she's afraid to let people in."

"Oooooohh," Logan said knowingly. "Let me guess: It didn't go well?"

"That's an understatement," Wallace responded. "I knew that she would attack if she felt threatened, so I tried not to go at her too hard—I really did. But apparently, I managed to touch on some sore spots."

"She's got a lot of them," Logan said. "You've got to be careful."

"I thought I was, but I guess the issue was more of a minefield than I thought," Wallace said sadly. "Hey, you've got more experience with pissing Veronica off than I do. How long until she cools off?"

Logan laughed. "Um, never? Seriously, I'm not the guy to ask, since she's barely spoken to me in months. But maybe it will be different with you."

"I hope so." Wallace sighed as Logan dropped his jacket and backpack on one of the chairs at his table. "Anyway, I talked to Max and he's up for the movie tomorrow night. If you come by my room at 7, we can go get Max and then head out."

"OK, but isn't your roommate going to be less than thrilled to see me?"

"Piz is leaving tomorrow morning to visit some friends at UCLA, so he's not going to be around this weekend," Wallace explained.

"That's good. I apologized a few days ago, but if I were him, I still wouldn't want to see me."

"Hey, I gave you a pretty good beatdown, and you're still hanging around," Wallace smirked.

"Ah, don't flatter yourself—it wasn't that good of a beatdown," Logan slapped Wallace on the shoulder. "I'm going to get some food. You need anything?"

"No, but don't get the meatloaf," Wallace said, making a face at his plate.

After an uneventful Friday, Wallace was checking e-mail in his room when there was a knock at the door.

"You're early? I'll alert the media—" he began, stopping when he saw his best friend standing on the other side of the door. "Um, hi," he said.

"I'm, uh, early to pick up Mac so, you know, I thought I'd stop by and, um…" She blinked hard a few times, her forehead crinkled, and she started to cry.

"Oh! Come in, come in," Wallace said hurriedly, knowing she'd be even more upset if anyone else saw her break down like that. She stepped inside, turning toward him with her arms wrapped around her own waist.

"I do need you, Wallace," she blurted out. "And I do trust you. I really do. It's just hard for me…"

"Come here," Wallace said, reaching out to Veronica and pulling her in for a hug. "I didn't mean to hurt you. That's not what I was trying to do."

"I know," she snuffled against his shoulder. "But you were right. I don't let people in, and I'm too controlling, and I don't allow myself to need anyone, and it's screwing up my relationships."

"Wait a minute, I didn't say it like that," Wallace protested.

"No, but it's the truth," Veronica replied. "And it's not the first time someone I love has told me that, in so many words." A new wave of tears came spilling out.

"Hey, hey, it's OK," Wallace said, rubbing her back comfortingly. It made his chest tighten to see her like this.

"No, it's not," she said, standing up straight and wiping the tears from under her eyes with her fingers. "I don't want you to ever feel like I don't love you. You're my BFF." She choked out a little laugh. "But I hope you can be patient with me."

"I've been patient with you this long, haven't I?" Wallace joked, handing her a tissue.

Veronica giggled a little as she dabbed at her eyes. ""Tonight I'm going to talk to Mac about getting a group together to go bowling next weekend. It's about time my friends got to know each other, I think. Are you in?"

"Sure, yeah!" he said brightly. "Seriously though, this is a two-way street, so I'm going to make an effort too. Let's make a vow to be more patient with each other, and if one of us gets pissed off, we can say so without fear of repercussion."

"OK," Veronica agreed, wiping her nose. "So can we talk about that green striped shirt of yours that I hate?"

Wallace grinned. "No, that shirt is off-limits. Leave the innocent shirt out of this."

Veronica smiled broadly, then put a hand on her forehead, warm from crying. "Are we good? Because I think that's all the emoting I can take for one night. I've gotta ease into these things."

Wallace grinned. "Yeah, we're good." He plunked himself back down into his desk chair.

Veronica threw out the tissue and opened the mini-fridge. "Is this yours or Piz's?" she asked, holding up a can of soda.

"Mine—you can take it," he said, watching as she held the cold can to her cheek. "So what are you and the lovely Miss Mackenzie up to this evening?"

She switched the can to the other cheek, then sat down on his bed. "The film department is showing this Danish movie we both wanted to see. You want to come?"

"Subtitles? No, thanks," he said. "Anyway, I've got plans. I'm going to see that new horror movie with Max…and Logan."

"Oh!" She seemed surprised, but then tried to act casual. "So…you guys are hanging out now?"

"Sort of, I guess. He's an OK guy—not who I thought he was. Definitely not the same guy who smashed your headlights during my first week in Neptune."

"That's true," she said thoughtfully. "But wait: Didn't you beat him up, like, two weeks ago? I saw the damage myself."

"Yeah, well, he's the forgiving type," Wallace said, a little pointedly. "And we kind of got to know each other while we were helping out a friend. You might have heard."

She smiled. "I've heard. Actually, when I saw the story on the news, I was pissed that you guys put yourself in danger like that—but seeing Sacks shoving Gorya Sorokin into the back of a squad car? That was pretty great."

"Wasn't it? I can see why you get off on this detective stuff. That was a major rush."

"I know," she said with a big grin. "You have to tell me: How did you make that happen? Max said that Mr. Kane was involved, but that you guys didn't give him any details." She popped open her soda can and crossed her legs on the bed, waiting to hear the story.

Wallace shook his head in mock disgust. "We didn't tell him because we thought we were keeping him out of trouble. I guess we didn't understand the extent of Mac's interrogation skills."

Veronica smiled broadly. "He's so crazy about her, he was helpless. It's pretty sweet, actually."

"Whatever, I'm totally giving him shit tonight."

"You can try, but he'll be the first one to admit that Mac's got him whipped," Veronica laughed. "Although getting him to track the e-mail was a smart move."

"Well, we sort of got that idea from you."

"From me?"

"Whenever we weren't sure what to do next, we asked ourselves, 'What would Veronica do?'" Wallace explained. "We even had a little abbreviation for it: WWVD. It was sort of a team motto. We might have t-shirts made."

"Aw, you're gonna make me blush," she said, although she was really blushing. "So, come on, what did you guys say to Mr. Kane to get him to help you?"

"I can't take any credit for that part—that was all Logan," Wallace said. "He threatened him by telling him that you were on the case, and you'd be surprised at how well that got his attention."

"Eeeeexcellent," Veronica said, tapping her fingertips together like a cartoon villain. "What else? That couldn't have been it. I'm not that scary."

"Yes, you are!" Wallace said. "But I think the rest is for Logan to tell you."

Her face fell. "We're not telling each other much lately."

Wallace nodded.

"I think you were right about what you said," she said softly. "I was waiting to push him away. But I don't know if I can fix it this time—I really went nuclear on him."

Wallace sighed. I shouldn't say anything. There is a guy code. He said not to say anything so I really shouldn't… He looked at Veronica sitting across from him, studying her soda can sadly. But there's also a best friend code, and I think that has to trump the guy code in this case. He took a deep breath, hoped this was the right move, and blurted it out.

"Whatever—he's still so in love with you," he said, trying to sound matter-of-fact about it.

"Wallace, I don't think so," Veronica said. "Not after what I—"

Wallace scoffed. "You know what he did to Piz when he first found out about the video." He held his hands up in a placating gesture. "I know, it was insane and he should have used his brain before his fists, but isn't it obvious why he did that?"

"Well…" She gave a little shrug.

"We went after the goddamned Russian mob, Veronica! Logan didn't do that as a favor to me. And what he said to Jake Kane…" Wallace grew very serious. "That took a lot out of him. He wouldn't have done that for just anyone. He couldn't have."

"Really?" she asked tentatively.

"Really. Just promise me you'll at least talk to him," Wallace said. "If you still love Logan, you have to try and put yourself out there. I want what's best for you, so if you want him, you need to take a chance. And honestly, I want what's best for him too, and I think that's probably you."

"You are a good friend, Wallace," Veronica said, leaning across the space between them to give him a quick embrace. "And speaking of friends, Mac's waiting for me. I'd better go."

"Promise me…"

"OK, I promise. First thing tomorrow."

"Good." She leaned over to throw away her soda can, while Wallace stepped toward the door to open it for her.

He found Logan was standing in the hallway, fist raised as though he were about to knock on the door.

"Um, hey," he said, his eyes darting between Wallace and Veronica.

"Hey," she said with a soft smile.

"I was just…Wallace and I were going to…" Logan pointed behind him with his thumb, indicating that they were going out.

"Yeah, I know, I just stopped by for a minute," Veronica replied. "I'm meeting Mac."

"Come on in," Wallace said, stepping out of the doorway.

As Logan walked in, his eyes down, Veronica glanced across the room at Wallace, her eyes wide. Wallace raised his eyebrows at her in a gesture that said, Go ahead.

"So, listen, I just wanted to thank you—both of you—for what you did for me," she said, looking around awkwardly, as Logan tugged nervously at his sleeves. "I know why you did it, and, well, um, just thanks for looking out for me."

"Yeah, well, someone's got to do it, you know?" Logan said. He smiled a tiny bit, glancing up at her and catching her eyes. The two stared at each other meaningfully for a moment, until Veronica broke the spell.

"Well, I'd better…"

"Yeah."

Wallace sighed. "No! You two need to talk, and it might as well be now." He picked up his jacket and walked backward toward the doorway. "I'll make your excuses to Max and Mac. You stay here and talk to each other, because as of now, I am officially out of this conversation." He backed out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Wallace took a few steps down the hall, then stopped. _OK, I'm not completely out of this conversation. If one of my friends—either one of them—is about to get their heart crushed, I should be there for them._

He returned to the door and paused outside to see if he could hear how things were going. Their voices were low, so he couldn't make out any words, but he figured the fact that they weren't yelling was probably a good thing. Maybe. _Damn it, I just need to know if everything's all right so I can leave._ He put his ear to the door.

 _BAM!_ Wallace jumped back as something crashed against the door. Oh hell—she's throwing things! I'm going in before they wreck the place. This was a bad idea. As he put his hand on the doorknob, he heard voices just inside.

"Oh, Logan…"

"God, Veronica…"

Wallace recoiled from the door.

"Babe, I missed you so much."

"Oooohhhh…"

 _Ooookay, I guess the talking part is over…_ Wallace wasn't sure if he was glad or horrified—glad for his friends, horrified at what they were doing in his room. _Gah. They'd better leave before they…_ Wallace shuddered. She was like a sister to him so he didn't want to think about that. He backed down the hall quickly, before he heard anything else.

When he got far enough away, he took out his phone and dialed. "Hey Mac, you want to catch that horror movie with me and Max tonight?...No, Veronica's not going to be able to make it….Come meet me in the lobby and I'll tell you on the walk over to Max's dorm…Don't worry, it's good news…"


	6. Epilogue

"You stay here and talk to each other, because as of now, I am officially out of this conversation." Veronica and Logan gaped at Wallace as he backed out of the room, and before either of them could protest, slammed the door behind him.

Veronica chuckled nervously while Logan pulled the cuffs of his jacket down over his hands.

"Look, I know Wallace thinks he's being helpful, but we don't need to do this," Logan said, moving toward the door. "I'm just going to—"

"No, wait!" Veronica said quickly, stepping between him and the door. He stopped, and his eyes met hers for a split second before he went back to studying his sleeves. She stayed silent for a moment, so he finally looked up at her resignedly.

"I don't know what you want me to say, Veronica."

"No, it's me who needs to say something. I just…" Her hands shook anxiously and she pushed a loose piece of hair behind her ear. She crossed her arms in front of her to still them and sighed loudly.

Logan's face fell. "Veronica, I can't do this again. If you still can't talk to me, after everything we've…" A faint thump outside the door halted his train of thought.

"Oh God, Piz isn't back, is he?" Veronica's eyes went wide.

"I hope not—Wallace said he was gone for the weekend." Logan took a long stride toward the door and peered out the peephole. "Wallace is listening outside," he whispered. "What the hell?"

Veronica smiled ruefully. "He worries. He's probably trying to make sure everything's OK before he leaves. It's what he does."

"You know, it's really amazing that you manage to get into all the trouble you do with so many of us trying to protect you," Logan said with a roll of his eyes. "I'm going to tell him he can go."

"Hold on." She grabbed Logan's hand before he could touch the doorknob. "I know how to make him leave."

Taking off her messenger bag and laying it softly on the floor, Veronica tiptoed over to the door, then threw herself backward against it. "Oh, Logan…" she moaned loudly, turning her face into the door to make sure her best friend heard her.

Logan grinned and got into the act. "God, Veronica…" he growled. Veronica scrunched up her face to keep from laughing aloud. "Babe, I missed you so much," Logan added.

Veronica pursed her lips and cooed dramatically: "Oooohhhh…"

At that, they heard the squeak of Wallace's gym sneakers as he retreated quickly down the hall. Logan looked out the peephole again. "He's gone."

Veronica sucked in a lungful of air and let out the guffaw she'd been holding in.

"You know, a lot of guys would have stayed to listen to that," Logan said with a half-smile.

"Not Wallace—he says I'm like the sister he never had, so I knew that would send him running," she replied. "And it was lot funnier than your idea of just politely sending him on his way."

"True, although it may have been a little bit mean," Logan said, holding up his thumb and forefinger a small space apart. He wandered to the other side of the room and leaned against the desk. "It's nice that he wanted to make sure you were all right."

Veronica stopped laughing and walked to the wardrobe across from Logan, leaning against it. "Judging from my conversation with him last night, he was probably looking out for you too."

"Yeah?" Logan said noncommittally, shoving his hands into the front pockets of his jeans.

"Yeah, he thinks I've been too hard on you," Veronica began. Logan raised an eyebrow. "And I think he's probably right."

"Hmm."

"Wallace and I sort of had it out last night, and I didn't handle it very well then—"

"So I heard," Logan interjected.

"—and," she continued pointedly, "he made me realize that you're not the only target of my trust and control issues—he's been hit with them too. And a few of my other friends, although that group seems to be shrinking quickly these days."

Logan pulled his hands out of his pockets and they fluttered with nervous energy. He picked up Wallace's stapler and began turning it over in his hands.

"So basically," Veronica continued, "this is a variation on the 'it's not you, it's me' speech. But instead of using it to break up with you, I'm using it to say…I'm sorry. I'm sorry I let all my crap get in the way of us—again."

"Veronica…"

"And I'm going to work on that. I'm going to try to be less controlling and try to let people in. I'm going to try and really trust the people who have earned it," she added, stepping away from the wardrobe and moving closer to him. "And I want a chance to prove that to you."

He put down the stapler.

"I want you back, Logan. I know that I've put you through a lot, but I can't stand not having you in my life, so…"

"Veronica," Logan cut her off. "I want you back too, so much that it hurts." She smiled and stepped toward him again, but he stood up straight and folded his arms in front of him. "But you've said all of this before, and then nothing changed. You've said you were going to start trusting me, but you never did—not really. It got to the point where I felt like I was walking on eggshells, because if I did anything you didn't like, you were going to leave me. Shit, I was worried that you wouldn't approve of the classes I registered for—which you didn't, by the way."

Veronica felt her eyes get hot, and she bit her lower lip to keep it from trembling.

"That's why I didn't tell you about Madison—I didn't think I really did anything wrong, since we weren't together then, but I knew you'd be out the door if you found out."

"I know," she whispered, her eyes downcast. "I'm sorry for that too."

"I believe you are, I do," he said gently, resting a hand on her shoulder. "But we've done this often enough that I still don't think things will be any different this time. We keep doing the same thing over and over, and it hurts more every time. I can't go back to second-guessing every decision I make because I'm afraid I'm going to lose you again. I can't go back to constantly feeling like I'm not quite good enough, because I've already had too much of that in my life. And I can't live with the feeling that you don't care about me as much as I care about you."

Veronica looked down, trying to hold back the tears that were continuing to build—and developing a terrible sense of déjà vu.

"I love you, Veronica, and I probably always will, but I can't do the same thing all over again." He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her forehead. She thought about the last time they'd performed this scene, and what she wished she had done differently that time. If she'd only said what she felt then, if she'd only been able to tell him… At that, she let the tears come.

Logan paused for a moment when he saw her wet cheeks. He quickly pulled himself together and whispered in a choked voice. "I'll see you around."

"I have to say one more thing," she said suddenly as he moved toward the door.

Logan's shoulders drooped and he hung his head as he turned toward her. "What?" he said, his voice flat.

Veronica took a shaky breath and exhaled hard. "I love you."

He looked up at her, his eyebrows raised.

"I love you," she said again, more firmly.

"Ooookaaay…" he replied carefully. "Um…why…why are you telling me this now?"

"Because you deserve to hear it," she said, struggling to get the words out past the ache in her throat. "Because even if we can't be together, I wanted you to know that I did—I do—love you. I love how you can always make me laugh. I love that you're trying to decide what you want to do with your life, even though you don't really have to do anything. I love that you're immensely loyal to your friends, even when we haven't earned it. I love the way you pull at your sleeves when you're nervous or upset."

Logan smiled a little bit and pushed his cuffs back past his wrists.

"I love the way your hair sticks up even when you try to smooth it down. I love how gentle you were with me the first time we made love, and how…not gentle you were the second time."

Logan blushed, and Veronica began crying again.

"And I love that no matter how many times life has knocked you down, you just keep getting up again and again, and that you've somehow managed to become a loving person despite all of it. And I hate myself for not telling you any of those things when we were together."

She paused awkwardly, but he said nothing. "So, um…I'm telling you now, because you should know that even though I didn't say it then, it doesn't mean that I didn't feel it."

Veronica looked off to the side and wiped at her eyes with her fingers, while Logan just stared at the floor. "That's all," she whispered. "You can…" She waved a hand toward the door. "I'm just going to stay here for a few minutes." She glanced around the room for Wallace's tissue box, and saw it on the desk.

As she began to turn away, Logan reached for her arm and spun her back toward him, pressing his mouth to hers. Her hands came up to grasp his shoulders, crushing his body tightly against hers. When his fingers came up to tangle in her hair, she sighed against his lips, silently praying that this wasn't a goodbye kiss.

He pulled back and looked in her eyes, wiping a tear away with his thumb. "Why did you do that?" she asked.

Logan grinned widely. "Because what you said? That was different. That was definitely not the same thing all over again."

"No, it wasn't," she said quickly, gripping the lapels of his jacket. "I told you, I want to change—I want to try—I want to make things different—better—between us. I can—"

"OK, I believe you!" Logan said, laughing. "I believe you." He smoothed a strand of hair off her forehead.

"So, you'll think about my offer?" she asked with a twinkle in her eye.

"I've thought about it—let's be different together." He leaned down to give her a soft kiss.

"Not too different though," Veronica said with a smirk. She reached around the back of his neck and yanked him down toward her, pushing her tongue into his mouth. He ran his hands up her sides and grazed his hands across the bare skin between her shirt and the waist of her pants. Veronica moaned.

"Hold on, bobcat," Logan said, breaking the passionate kiss. "I think we need to talk some more before we get to that."

Veronica contorted her face into an exaggerated frown.

"Oh, there's going to be that too, don't you worry," he said, planting a kiss on each cheek. "Just not yet. And not in Wallace's room. Let's go somewhere that we can be sure there are no cameras." He shuddered, looking around toward each corner of the ceiling.

"Fine, make a good point, why don't you?" Her stomach rumbled loudly. "How about you buy me dinner?"

"You didn't eat?"

"I was going to gorge on popcorn and candy at the movie," she replied with a shrug as she bent to pick up her bag.

"Gross. Let's get you a real meal," Logan said, opening the door for her.

They walked out of the room and he slipped an arm around her waist, kissing her on the temple. Veronica reached back to make sure the door locked behind them.

"Should we text Wallace to let him know the coast is clear?" Logan asked.

"Yeah, but not yet," she said with a grin. "Let's let him sweat a little longer."

"God, you're mean," Logan laughed.

Veronica leaned into him affectionately as they left the building together. "Well, some things are just not going to change."


End file.
